Preview: UFC 312 ‘Du Plessis vs. Strickland 2’

Heavyweights

Tallison Teixeira (7-0, 0-0 UFC) vs. Justin Tafa (7-4, 4-4 UFC)

ODDS: Teixeira (-135), Tafa (+114)

Chances are this will be fun, quick and violent. Tafa was particularly raw when the UFC picked him up in 2019, but Australia’s “Bad Man” at least did well to learn on the job. After rushing into a knockout loss in his UFC debut, Tafa quickly learned to pivot into being a hard-hitting counterpuncher. That approach has still run him into trouble against opponents either willing to stay patient or out-wrestle him, but there’s a wide swath of heavyweights who are willing to charge into danger as Tafa once did, so he can probably keep scoring knockouts for as long as the UFC wants to keep him around. This time, Tafa welcomes a Brazilian newcomer in Teixeira, a 6-foot-7 heavyweight who certainly cuts an impressive figure.

Teixeira has shown some potential thus far, running through all of his competition within a round, though there are some questions as to how he will handle an opponent who can stand his ground and return fire like Tafa. This probably ends one of two ways, with Teixeira either overwhelming Tafa quickly or eating the first knockout punch of his career; and at this point, Tafa is the much more proven entity. The pick is Tafa via first-round knockout.

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Du Plessis vs. Strickland
Zhang vs. Suarez
Teixeira vs. Tafa
Bellato vs. Crute
Matthews vs. Prado
The Prelims